With the increasing popularity of cellular telephones, it has become practical for various businesses, e.g. car rental businesses and the like, to offer cellular telephones for rent, for example in connection with a car rental transaction. Since use of a cellular phone is paid for in accordance with special tariffs that are considerably higher than tariffs for conventional telephones, it can happen that a renter of a cellular telephone runs up a phone bill of considerable magnitude. It also frequently happens that cellular telephones are stolen from the rented vehicle, and that the thief runs up a very high telephone bill for which the owner of the cellular phone is responsible.
It is accordingly a primary object of the instant invention to provide a time control system for cellular telephones which limits the time available to the user of the phone to some preset length of time as agreed upon by the user and owner of the phone.
Applicants are unaware of any prior art relating to the invention disclosed herein.
Further objects and advantages of this invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of a presently preferred embodiment which is illustrated schematically in the accompanying drawings.